Anniversary

We took Kathleen and Ian (the ones we have bought the flat for and will be coming out in March next year to live in Latvia from England) to see our new friends Roger and Valerie who moved from England to Latvia in May this year. I thought that Kathleen & Ian might have a lot in common with Roger & Valerie but I didn't realise how much. It turns out that Ian, Roger and Valerie lived in the same area for many years. They spent much of the time saying do your remember such and such, my aunty worked there and do your remember those who lived on such and such farm etc etc? It was great fun to listen to though. We also fitted in a visit to Rundāle Palace as you can see from the picture.

Great news this week was we had an offer on our house for more than I had set as a figure that I would like to get for the house and we hopefully get to sell it to a local which I am really pleased about. Obviously it is still early days yet but everything is proceeding fine so far. Just have to pray that the solicitors back holds up this time. Last time we used this solicitor he hurt his back and was off for months and it really messed up the continuity, I was so pleased when he came back and sorted out some details that were not up to date at the end.

Wednesday saw us with our official documents to say we actually own the flat we agreed to buy earlier on this month. The lady who sold us the flat and her daughter helped with tying up some of the other paperwork which made life a lot simpler. They even helped us to organise getting a plumber out to sort out the pipework in the new flat. I am now regretting not getting a photo as it is quite complicated to explain but the upshot of it is that the water supply that was in our new flat ran through our meter and then carried on upstairs to the water meter in the flat above. Effectively meaning that there was two lots of water running through our meter, fortunately it was spotted by my ever so observant husband when investigating a leak from upstairs and checking on our pipes as well with our Swedish cape crusader who is the man to know in such circumstances. 

On Thursday Ian had just left our flat, to let in the plumber to our new flat to sort out the pipes as arranged, when there was a tap at the door. "Strange!" thinks I, "why would he be knocking on the door?" I went to the door expecting to see Ian with a handful of things in his arms but instead there were four intimidating looking men. Gulp! One of them flashed some official looking documentation in front of me which I couldn't read until one of them had the sense to switch on the landing light. All I could tell is they were from some Latvian ministry. "Angliski?" I said as they were babbling away in Latvian - which means "English?".  At this point one guy stepped forward, he was actually the friendlier looking of the four, and said it was the Latvian Immigration service and they wanted to ask me some questions. Fortunately someone I knew had had a visit from Latvian Immigration a few months before and said that since the open border agreement within Europe, the officials are now required to check individuals, which meant this was just a routine visit. Well after answering a few questions and having a little chat with the guy who spoke English then showing my documents they went away happy. My poor American Missionary neighbour got more of a grilling though as they have to conform to certain criteria in order to stay, whereas I only had to have the appropriate documentation and confirm there was only the two of us in the flat.

Friday saw us heading off to Riga, we had been invited to help with some mentoring and it was a good time of sharing our story with some young folks. The pastor who was attending told how he waited 8 years before accepting Jesus and wished he had done it sooner and we shared about waiting on God's timing but I think it was good to see both sides and to explain when God says "go" then "go" and when he says "wait" then "wait". The obvious key though is to listen to God in the first place and learn to hear his voice. We then went back to stay overnight with Steve and Natalija who had invited us to the meeting and their kids. Simon the youngest is only 6 months old starting to try and talk like babies do and it so funny, he does it with the biggest cheesiest grin ever. 

Sunday we decided to go apple picking as there are lots of apple trees that go with our new flat and it was a gorgeous day. There were three kids playing around outside and they said hello, practicing their English on the strange couple. They also babbled away a bit in Latvian which we didn't really understand much of but I had wondered whether they had offered to help us, this was confirmed when Ian came downstairs with one end of a stack of shelves and one of the kids on the other end. They were so funny as they kept coming down into the basement with things like apples (no idea where they were getting them from, and couldn't really ask), and coffee flavoured sweets. They then gave us a small bunch of wild flowers they had picked. I think they might be helpful to us in picking up some Latvian words, I am sure they will think it huge fun to teach us, and I think they may improve their English too.

Well it is our Wedding Anniversary today - 24 years! We didn't really do anything special as we had eaten out at a restaurant with our friends on Saturday and I feel like I have eaten too much just lately and the day before we went round to the new bakery that has finally opened this week, so we didn't want to go back to often - well we do but I don't think it will be good for my waistline even if we walk around there. Forgot to mention while we went to the bakery on the day it opened we saw the mayor of the town there, I introduced myself and explained that I am going to start a course on development management and would probably use Ergli as a subject so would like to know some more about the place, he agreed to meet up with us so will be doing that later on this week.